Adam Wood, Assistant Professor of English
Story by Carlena Mattiello

"The first job I had, I got when I was fifteen,” he recalls. “I worked at some pizza joint and I stirred pizza sauce with my arm. Literally.”

Sound like a dream job for the future?

No? Well, having his arm in sauce wasn’t exactly what Dr. Adam Wood, a new professor of English, had in mind for his future either. “It lasted about seven months,” he laughs.

As it turns out, Wood spent his childhood primarily in the south, mostly in Northern Virginia—not typically what one would consider a prime location for a “punk-rocker” of the '80s. However, he spent a great deal of time just outside Washington D.C., witnessing first-hand the racial and class tensions that resulted in an outpouring of culturally significant, societal controversies. It was during this rapidly changing time in U.S. history when he found himself consumed with the idea of understanding why people were inherently drawn to violence. Thus, he set out to find just from where this seemingly natural behavior came.

His curiosity with human psychology soon coupled with his deep interest in fiction -- novels with closely related themes. “I’m mainly interested in violence in American naturalism," he explains, "[and] have long been fascinated with the ability of the written language to convey such power.”  His thorough comprehension and true appreciation of portrayal through the use of such poetic, descriptive and thoughtfully chosen words pointed him in the direction, and got him to, his future.

Indeed, Wood has come a long way from the sauce-stirring days. IHe is already in his tenth year of teaching. His ability to inspire open-ended discussion and challenge the viewpoints of others made the profession a natural fit. “I graduated with my Ph.D. from Georgia State University two years ago,” he says. “I was a visiting instructor at Georgia State University for a year and a half and spent last spring semester at Albany State University, an Historically Black University in Albany, Georgia.”

Now he is here at SU—and he wouldn’t change that for the world. “I love it here,” he says. “There’s something to be said for a small university; I enjoy being able to see students mature and develop in their careers whereas I may not be able to do the same at a larger school.”

He also loves what he teaches. “After 1865, American literature gets darker and more violent, more focused on the seedy underbelly of existence,” he explains “It is also in this timeframe when the philosophical influences of Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud begin to emerge in literature.” Talk about right up his alley. So, what are students expected to read? “Good books. Lots of Good books,” he smiles.

Although Wood expects the best from his students, he confesses he relates to them much more than they might think. At one point, he flunked out of college. However, the experience helped him truly understand freshmen and "how they want to do everything but go to class."  But, he warns, he "doesn't cut slack because of it."

"I hate it when student’s don’t read,” he comments. Not reading and close-mindedness are surefire ways to flunk. Either you read or you don’t—it’s a pretty easy fix; however, combating close-mindedness tends to create a little more of a challenge.

In an effort to broaden horizons, Wood encourages multiple perspectives and tries to de-familiarize his students with a variety of common theories. He wants his students to look outside of their world, but more importantly, to "look outside of their personal perspective."

"Basically, I want [my students] to find reasoning behind why they think the way they do, behind today's state and the importance of historical conditioning with the help of these powerful literary works," he explains.

With a fascination for such power, it's no surprise music, too, consumes a large part of Wood’s life. He has always had a genuine interest in the music scene; he himself plays the guitar and often writes song in his spare time—songs for the folk rock band he is in. Folk rock? What happened to the hard-core, hear-me-roar “punk-rocker” of the 80s? He laughs. "I’d like to think I traded in that anger for a general sense of frustration," he admits. Although his taste in music has changed over the years, his passion for the art form has not. “I guess you could say I write for and play in the folk/Americana genre,” he says, adding that he also enjoys jazz, dropping Coltrane as a particular favorite. He boasts of a piano in his living room—a piano he leaves untouched.

For a man who describes himself as a “carnivorous Americanist,” one who is drawn to conflict and violence in literary works, he tends to live a modest, mellow lifestyle. He currently lives with his wife and two cats. “I also have fish tank, but I don’t have any fish,” he laughs. It’s probably sitting on the piano.